About Us

Archaeology for Educators was created by Maureen
Malloy, Manager, Education and Outreach at the Society
for American Archaeology and Ann
Kaupp, Head of the Anthropology Outreach Office
at the Smithsonian Institution. For additional information
contact: Maureen Malloy, Society for American Archaeology
maureen_malloy@saa.org,
202/789-8200.

Who is this Unit For?

We hope this unit will help meet the needs of both
formal and informal educators including classroom teachers,
museum educators, park interpreters, scout leaders,
and home-schooling parents who wish to use archaeology
in their teaching or public programs. The unit will
be particularly useful for those teaching children in
the elementary and middle grades, but we know from experience
that many of the activities can be easily adapted to
high school and even beyond.

Why We Created this Unit

Both the Society for American Archaeology and the
Smithsonian Institution are frequently contacted by
educators seeking information and activities about archaeology.
Many wish they could introduce their students to the
excitement of archaeology by taking them on a dig. But
it is not necessary for students to excavate a real,
or even a sandbox site, to experience the excitement
of archaeology. Many fine hands-on classroom archaeology
activities that have been developed and used over the
years and are included here, along with innovative new
computer simulations and interactive activities that
bring the dig to you. You and your students can now
learn about and experience many aspects of archaeology
without leaving the classroom, without building complicated
dig boxes, taking expensive field trips or spending
many hours surfing the web for lesson plans and activities.
We have summarized why and how archaeologist’s
work, have provided popular and successful hands-on
activities, have found cool new animations, streaming
video, virtual tours, and interactive games to enhance
student interest and understanding of archaeology.

To Dig or Not to Dig?

Kids don’t need to dig to dig archaeology!

We encourage you to explore the past with your students
in 21st century style. Rather than constructing and
excavating a sandbox dig, try out some of the new interactive
digs online. Can’t arrange a field trip to visit
an archaeological site? No problem—you can take
your class on a virtual site tour. Wish you could find
an archaeologist to talk to your class about their work?
Archaeologists now share their experiences with you
through streaming audio and video and interactive web
sites allow you to ask questions and follow the work
of excavations in progress.

“It’s Not what you Find,
it’s What You Find Out.”

While finding artifacts is exciting, what really turns
on archaeologists is the information they get from the
artifacts they find--not the artifacts themselves--
and how that helps to answer research questions or to
explain problems. Sometimes this can be done without
digging at all! Archaeologists can sometimes use technologies
such as ground penetrating radar or magnetometry to
learn about what is under the ground without digging.
Other times they may be able to infer what is under
the ground based on surface finds and samples. When
archaeologists do need to excavate, they follow strict
legal and ethical guidelines and are responsible for
analyzing and properly storing the artifacts they recover,
as well as writing up their findings and sharing their
knowledge and discoveries with their colleagues and
the public. If you do use a classroom dig, your students
will benefit more from the experience if it is a culminating
unit activity that is grounded in an understanding of
the scientific, ethical, and legal aspects of archaeology.
In the words of archaeologist David Hurst Thomas: “It’s
not what you find, it’s what you find out.”

How To Use This Unit

To Teach a Classroom Unit on Archaeology: We strongly
recommend that you complete the entire unit in sequential
order. In this way, students are grounded in the importance
of studying and preserving the past before they are
introduced to field methods, analysis, and interpretation.
Students will also learn how they can get involved in
archaeology and how they can join archaeologists to
help us preserve the past for the future. Try some of
the interactive and hands-on activities suggested in
each section as you move through the unit.

Resources

To
Dig or Not to DigIn this short article, an archaeology educator discusses simulated and real student excavations and explains why she supports using classroom activities without undertaking digging.